Freight bracing apparatus



April 18, 1967 R. M. KROKOS FREIGHT BRACING APPARATUS 5 Sheets$heet l Filed Sept. 30, 1964 April 18, 1967 R, M. KROKOS FREIGHT BRACING APPARATUS Filed Sept. 30, 1964 3 Sheets INVENTOR. Fay/770214 M /i 2w%as.

April 18, 1 67 I R.KROKOS i 3,314,379

FREIGHT BRACING APPARATUS 3 Sheetsfiheet 3 Filed Sept. 30, 1964 INVENTOR.

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/? razvvz/s United States Patent 3,314,379 FREIGHT BRACING APPARATUS Raymond M. Krokos, Detroit, Mich., assignor to Evans Products Company, Plymouth, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Filed Sept. 30, 1964, Ser. No. 400,343 2 Claims. (Cl. 105-369) The present invention relates to freight bracing apparatus and more particularly to an improved pad assembly for use in racks, railroad cars, trucks, or the like for cushioning loads carried therein.

It is an-object of the present invention to provide an improved pad assembly which is simple in design, economical of manufacture, and durable and efficient in use.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a pad assembly including a pad formed of a suitable material adapted to cushion the material engaging it and having improved means for anchoring the pad in place.

Frequently in the past difliculty has been encountered in suitably anchoring such pads in place because of the fact that the pads may be of a material which is low in tensile strength and the anchoring means previously used have in many cases resulted in tearing of the pad so that the anchoring means is ineffective.

The present invention provides an improved means for anchoring the pad in place by which means tearing of the pad around the anchoring means during the rough usage encountered, is virtually eliminated.

Other and more detailed objects of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the following specification, the appended claims and the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a pad assembly embodying the improvements of the present invention mounted on a rack;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged broken elevational view of the pad assembly illustrated in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view of the structure illustrated in FIGURE 2 taken substantially along the line 33 thereof;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged broken sectional view of that portion of the structure illustrated in FIGURE 3 indicated by the circle 4;

FIGURE 5 is a view similar to FIGURE 4 of a pad assembly constructed in accordance with a modified form of the present invention;

FIGURE 6 is a broken elevational view similar to FIG- URE 2 showing a pad assembly constructed in accordance with a further modified form of the present invention;

FIGURE 7 is an enlarged broken sectional view of the structure illustrated in FIGURE 6 taken substantially along the line 77 thereof;

FIGURE 8 is a broken enlarged sectional view of that portion of the structure illustrated in FIGURE 7 indicated by the circle 8; and, 7

FIGURE 9 is a broken sectional view showing the relationship of the parts at one stage in the manufacture of the pad assembly illustrated in FIGURE 6.

Referring to FIGURES 1 to 4, inclusive, the pad assembly of the present invention is generally indicated at 10 and is illustrated in FIGURE 1 as mounted at one end of a rack generally indicated at 12 which, as shown, is of a construction illustrated and described in greater detail in the applicants Patent No. 3,119,498 granted Jan. 28, 1964. For the present purposes it is sufficient to state that the rack 12 includes a supporting element 14 in the form of a horizontally extending angle, the horizontal flange 16 of which has a plurality of equally spaced apertures 18 therethrough.

The pad assembly 10 generally comprises a pad 20 3,314,379 Patented Apr. 18, 1967 which may be formed of any suitable material adapted to cushion material loaded on the rack. Suitable materials include, for example, natural or synthetic resilient cellular foam materials such as foamed polyurethane, polyvinyl or polyethylene and synthetic and natural rubbers, as well as felt or fibrous materials. In the preferred embodiments illustrated the pad 20 is formed of foamed polyethylene. The pad 20, except for its end surfaces, is covered by a metal screen 22 which may be of any desired gauge and in the preferred embodiment illustrated, is formed of ordinary metal window screen. At one side the pad assembly 10 is provided with an anchor plate 24 which is secured to the screen 22 as hereinafter described and carries a bracket 26 welded thereto by means of which the pad assembly is mounted on the support member 14. In the preferred embodiment illustrated the bracket 26 includes three spaced vertically extending pin portions 28 extending downwardly from a plate portion 30 and terminating at their lower ends in laterally turned feet 32.

As best illustrated in FIGURE 3, when the pad assembly 10 is mounted on the support element 14, the plate portion 30 of the bracket 28 rests upon the upper surface of the flange 16 of the support member 14, the pin portions 28 extend downwardly through the apertures 18, and the feet 32 engage the adjacent face of the vertically extending flange 34 of the support angle 14. The anchor plate 24 is secured to the screen 22 by rivets 36 which extend through openings 38 provided on the anchor plate 24 and through openings 40 formed in the screen 22 without severing the wires thereof, by displacing the individual wire elements of the screen to provide an opening sufiiciently large to insert the shank of the rivet therethrough. As is best illustrated in FIGURE 3, the pad 20 at each of the rivets 36 has a large opening 42 formed therein to permit the placement of a washer 44 over the shank of the rivet 36 and against the inner surface of the screen 22. To complete the anchoring of the anchor plate 24 to the screen 22, a suitable tool is inserted through the opening 42 in the foam pad and the rivet is headed over the washer 44 as illustrated at 46. It will be appreciated, of course, that to permit this attachment of the anchor plate to the screen 22 in the manner described, the portion of the screen 22 at the opposite side of thepad is cut away to provide an opening 48 aligned with the opening 42 in the pad 20.

In the form of the invention illustrated in FIGURES 1 to 4, inclusive, the screen 22, in addition to encircling the pad 20, is secured thereto by a suitable adhesive or bonding material 50 which is spread over and through the screen 22 and onto the adjacent surface of the pad 20 so that upon setting of the adhesive 50 the screen 22 is sec-urely bonded to the pad 20. The adhesive 50 may be any suitable material adapted to be spread over and through the screen and into contact with the pad 20 and to set up and bond to the screen and to the pad 20.

FIGURE 5 illustrates a modified form of the present invention which differs from that illustrated in FIGURES 1 to 4, inclusive, only in that no adhesive 50 is employed and the screen 22' and the pad 20 are bonded together by completely coating the screen 22' with a film of a suitable plastic material 52 and forming the pad 20 by foaming it in place within the coated screen 22'. In this form the plastic material 52 employed for coating the screen 22' and the plastic material employed in foaming the pad 20' in place are such that when the pad 20' is foamed in place, it bonds to the coating of the screen 22'. In one such preferred embodiment the screen 22' is dipped in a liquid polyethylene of a consistency to completely coat the screen and fill the apertures thereof upon the setting of the polyethylene and the pad 20' is foamed in place within the screen and of a polyethylene material which, during the foaming operation, bonds to the polyethylene film coating the screen.

Referring to FIGURES 6, 7, 8 and 9, the pad assembly 60 differs from the pad assembly 10 in that the screen does not fully encircle the pad, In the construction of FIG- URES 6 through 9, inclusive, the pad 62 has on one side thereof a pair of screen sections 64 which, in the manufacture of the pad assembly 60 are secured to the pad 62 by placing each of the screen sections 64 between two layers of a plastic sheet 66 as illustrated in FIGURE 9. The screen 64 with the plastic layers on both sides thereof is then placed against the pad 62 and heat and pressure are applied to melt the plastic film 66 and cause the plastic to fiow around the screen 64 filling the apertures thereof and to flow against and into intimate contact with the adjacent surface of the pad 62. Upon cooling the plastic 66 bonds both to the screen 64 and to the pad 62. It will be appreciated that in this form of the invention the plastic sheet 66 employed is of a suitable thermo-plastic material and the pad 62 is formed of a material suitable for bonding of the plastic of the sheet 66 thereto as it cools after the above described heating. In the embodiment illustrated in FIGURES 6 to 9, inclusive, the pad 62 is formed of foamed polyethylene and the plastic sheet 66 is of polyethylene and is of a thickness such that after the heating and re-setting of the polyethylene film 66, the strands of the screen 64 will extend partially through the outer surface of the polyethylene film 66 as is clearly illustrated. in FIGURE 8. It will, of course, be appreciated that the sheet of polyethylene maybe sutficiently thick so that after the melting and cooling, the screen 64 will be completely covered. The construction of the pad assembly 60 is otherwise the same as that described above for the pad assembly 10, the anchor plate 68 thereof being secured to the screen 64in the same manner as in the pad assembly 10.

While only a few specific embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described in detail herein, it will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that numerous modifications and changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A resilient freight bracing pad assembly adapted to be selectively secured to and supported on a support element mounted on a rack, railroad car or the like, said pad assembly comprising attachment means for selectively securing said pad assembly to the supporting element, a

screen formed from interwoven wires, means for affixing said screen to said attachment means, a resilient cushion pad presenting a surface adapted to be engaged by freight and having another surface juxtaposed to said screen, and a material disposed in the apertures of said screen and at least partially encompassing the wires of said screen for fixing said material to said screen, said material having an adhesive bond to the adjacent surface of said resilient cushion pad for fixing said pad to said screen and to said attachment means.

2. A pad assembly adapted to be selectively secured to and supported on a support element mounted on a rack, railroad car or the like, said pad assembly comprising a plate, a support bracket fixed to said plate and adapted to be selectively secured to said support element at spaced positions therealong, a pad formed of a material having a low tensile strength and adapted to engage material carried in said rack, freight car or the like, and means for securing said plate to said pad and comprising a screen formed from interwoven wires, a material disposed in the apertures of said screen and at least partially around the wires of said screen and bonded to said pad to secure said screen to said pad, and means securing said plate to said screen, said screen having at least one attaching aperture formed Without severing the wires of said screen by forcing the wires out of their normal position and said last named means including means extending through said attaching aperture and engaging said screen around said attaching aperture at the side of said screen remote from said plate.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,322,576 6/1943 Huebshman et a1. 248223 2,649,391 8/ 1953 Alderfer 26445 2,866,730 12/1958 Potchen et all 26445 2,962,158 11/1960 Stnuthers 206-46 3,035,825 5/1962 Weller 20646 3,095,187 6/1963 Sweeney et al. 249358 XR 3,115,102 12/1963 Rolfe et al. 369 3,124,626 3/1964 Graham etal. 264-45 3,163,130 12/ 1964 Lundvall l05369 3,200,772 8/1965 Moorehead 105-369 ARTHUR L. LA POINT, Primary Examiner.

DRAYTON E. HOFFIVIAN, Examiner. 

1. A RESILIENT FREIGHT BRACING PAD ASSEMBLY ADAPTED TO BE SELECTIVELY SECURED TO AND SUPPORTED ON A SUPPORT ELEMENT MOUNTED ON A RACK, RAILROAD CAR OR THE LIKE, SAID PAD ASSEMBLY COMPRISING ATTACHMENT MEANS FOR SELECTIVELY SECURING SAID PAD ASSEMBLY TO THE SUPPORTING ELEMENT, A SCREEN FORMED FROM INTERWOVEN WIRES, MEANS FOR AFFIXING SAID SCREEN TO SAID ATTACHMENT MEANS, A RESILIENT CUSHION PAD PRESENTING A SURFACE ADAPTED TO BE ENGAGED BY FREIGHT AND HAVING ANOTHER SURFACE JUXTAPOSED TO SAID SCREEN, AND 